We're heading into the 2005 season of the Empire Progressive League. At the moment, we have one vacant team (Boston) plus four teams that are being managed by the owner of another team (Minnesota, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Detroit).  See below for rosters  The league has been going strong since the 1977 season (28 seasons), with many of the original owners still participating. Also, we use a salary cap, which makes it interesting. Sitemail me if you are interested.

Here are some of the key rules for this league...

SALARY CAP: We have a two-level salary cap - $80M and $85M. Your initial 25-man roster at the start of the season needs to fit under the $80M cap. We also allow the drafting of real-life ML players that start the year at AAA. The salaries of those guys don't count against the $80M cap, but they do count against the $85M cap. Once the season starts, your entire roster - 25-man plus AAA needs to fit under the $85M cap. This additional cap space can be used to pick up better players via trades. As far as going over the cap, the system won't let you do that. (Hopefully, this all makes sense.)

AAA: We do not allow the "imaginary" AAA players to be used. However, as stated above, we do allow the drafting of up to three real-life players that start the season on your AAA roster. You don't have to draft any extra players, but it's an option.

DRAFT ORDER: The draft order is based on the standings at the 120-game mark of the previous season. This allows us to draft while the previous season is completing and start the next season shortly after. We also have a win floor rule to prevent tanking. If a team doesn't reach 30 wins by the 120th game, they get bumped down to the 6th pick.

DH: No designated hitter.

PROSPECTS: A prospect is a player who played in the major leagues in a given season, but isn't yet become WiS eligible for that season. For instance, in the 1995 draft, Derek Jeter was a prospect. He played for the Yankees in the '95 season, but didn't accummulate enough ABs to be WiS-eligible until 1996. So basically, someone can draft him and then they own his rights until he becomes WiS-eligible. He doesn't occupy a roster spot until that point. You can only draft prospects in the first round and you can only have one prospect at a time.

DRAFT PICK TRADES: You can trade picks one year ahead.

2005 Boston Red Sox

C - Yadier Molina, Jason Phillips

1B - Casey Kotchman, Tomas Perez

2B -

3B - Mike Lowell

SS - Adam Everett, Jose Reyes

OF - Jody Gerut, Mark Kotsay, Rondell White, Eric Young

DH - Frank Thomas

P - Heath Bell, Armando Benitez, Brandon Claussen, Jeff Francis, Zack Greinke, Danny Haren, Steve Kline, Darrell May, Jim Mecir, Terry Mulholland, Arthur Rhodes, Nate Robertson, Scott Schoenweis, Carlos Silva

IR - none

Retired - C Dan Wilson, OF Dave Berg, OF Bobby Higginson

Draft picks - #6 (out of 24) pick in all rounds 1
 

2005 Minnesota Twins

C - Gregg Zaun

1B - Albert Pujols, Tony Clark

2B - Miguel Cairo, Jose Castillo

3B - Bill Mueller

SS - Rich Aurilia, Alex Gonzalez

OF - Jerry Hairston Jr., Ryan Klesko, Kevin Millar, Sammy Sosa, Nick Swisher, Jayson Werth

P - Roger Clemens, Neal Cotts, Scott Eyre, Jimmy Gobble, Jason Grimsley, Chris Hammond, Kent Mercker, Mark Redman, Jorge Sosa, John Thomson, Jarrod Washburn, Todd Wellemeyer, Dontrelle Willis

IR - P Mike Adams [2008], P Oscar Villarreal [2006]

Retired - C Charles Johnson

Draft picks - #16 (out of 24) in round 1; #17 in round 2; #16 and #20 in round 3; #16 in round 4; ...
 

2005 Pittsburgh Pirates 

C - Mike Piazza, Kelly Stinnett, Javier Valentin

1B - Travis Lee, Carlos Pena

2B - Marlon Anderson, Rickie Weeks, Tony Womack

3B - Adrian Beltre, Robb Quinlan

SS - Jack Wilson

OF - Jeff DaVanon, Marquis Grissom, Torii Hunter, Craig Monroe, Jeremy Reed, Alex Rios

P - Kiko Calero, Adam Eaton, Kyle Farnsworth, Josh Fogg, Aaron Harang, Rich Harden, Luke Hudson, Jason Isringhausen, Ted Lilly, David Riske, Russ Springer, Dave Williams

IR - P Chad Bradford [2006], P Buddy Carlyle [2007]

Retired - P Wilson Alvarez

Draft pick trades - #22 (out of 24) pick in all rounds